The Jinhua River God Temple stood by the Jinhua River. As people burned incense and kowtowed, they watched the steadily rising water with concern. The Jinhua River had always been calm, but today it was exceptionally turbulent, slapping against the embankment with sharp crashes.
"It's still rising! If it rises any further, it'll overflow the embankment!" someone said anxiously.
"Once it crosses the embankment, our estates and fertile fields will all be flooded. The losses will be enormous."
Just then, someone saw a procession approaching. Yamen runners walked on either side, while a group of people in official robes stood in the middle. Someone immediately shouted that the Prefect and Assistant Prefect had arrived, and the commoners quickly moved aside.
The Prefect and Assistant Prefect led a group of government officials to the River God Temple. After looking at the temple and then at the river beside it, which continued to rise, they too grew anxious. They promptly led several officials in burning incense and praying to the River God.
"This official, Jinhua Prefect Zhao Shanqing, together with the Assistant Prefect, judicial commissioner, and other colleagues of Jinhua Prefecture, beseeches the River God to suppress these waters, relieve this prefecture's flood disaster, and ease the suffering of the people!"
The officials knelt to pray. Seeing this, the commoners also knelt and pleaded. Before long, the open ground outside the River God Temple was packed with a dark mass of kneeling people.
Suddenly,
someone shouted, "Look! Look! The water has stopped rising!"
Everyone raised their heads and found that although the water had not receded, it truly had stopped rising. It swayed gently by the embankment and had lost its previous ferocity.
"Ah, it must be the River God's blessing. He made the water stop."
"Hurry and thank the River God!"